Travellers stranded on Lagos-Benin road

By Joe Akintola
THOUSANDS of motorists and travelers out of Lagos to the South-South, South-East zones and other parts of the country were at the weekend stranded for several hours on the Lagos-Ore-Benin Expressway, near the university town of Okada, Edo State due to several failed portions of the road.

However, desperate motorists resorted to driving against the traffic to get out of the gridlock, a development that compounded the situation.

Vanguard learnt that the problem was as as a result of total closure of one side of the road by the contractors handling the road project.

HOW DO WE GO FROM HERE?: Some of the travelers stranded for over six hours on the notorious Lagos-Ore-Benin Express Road near Okada Village, in Edo State, due to the near-collapsed state of the road, weekend. Photo: Joe Akintola,Photo Editor. The suffering encountered by the passengers was unbearable as some women were seen by the roadside breastfeeding their babies.

One of the travelers, Mr. Anthony Okafor, recalled that three years ago, Nigerians witnessed a similar traffic snarl which made the then Minister of Works, Mrs. Diezene Alison-Madueke, visit the place and apologised to Nigerians. She promised to speed up the completion of the project.

Okafor appealed to: “The Federal Government to compel the contractor to finish the rehabilitation before the commencement of the rainy season as the situation tends to be worse.”

Passengers who were stranded kept raining abuses on this reporter for taking pictures of the road as previous pictures and video recording of the roads have yielded no positive result. â€˜Please, stop cajoling us with all these pictures you are taking, we know nothing will come out of itâ€™, one of the stranded passengers said.